Pumping-engine



(No Model.) 2 SheGAJsL- Sheet 1. E. M. WHEELER.

PUMPING ENGINE. No. 411.177. Patented Sept. 17, 1889.

2 Sheets-Sheet 2.

(No Model.)

F. M..WHEELER.

PUMPING ENGINE;

Patented Sept. 17, 1889.

l 5 s n Nv PETERS Fhcw-Lmlographer, Washington, D (2 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

FREDERICK MERIAM WVHEELER, OF MONTCLAIR, NEIV JERSEY.

PUMPING-ENGINE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 411,177, dated September 17, 1889.

Application filed November 23, 1888. Serial No. 291,671. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern;

Be it known that I, FREDERICK MERIAM WVHEELER, of Montclair, in the county of Essex and State of New Jersey, have invented an Improvement in Pumping Engines, of which the following is a specification.

Pumps of various kinds have heretofore been driven by expansion-engines, the steam under a high pressure being admitted to the smaller cylinder and allowed to escape and expand into a second cylinder of larger size, and in some instances the steam has passed into athird cylinder of still larger diameter, the stroke of the pistons in the three cylinders being uniform; but in engines of this character it has been necessary to separate one of the cylinders from the other in order to introduce the packing-glands that render the piston-rod stean1-tight, and difficulty has been experienced in obtaining access to the respective pistons for packing or repairing the same, and the largest of the cylinders be ing in the middle has rendered it necessary to employ long steam-pipes for passing the steam from the smaller cylinder at one end to the medium-sized cylinder at the other end of the central large cylinder, thus causing considerable Waste of steam and rendering it inconvenient to make the respective connections.

My present improvements are intended for simplifying the construction of the engine, lessening the length of the steam-pipes between one valve-chest and the next, and for operating the valves of the three engines simultaneously, and, although my present improvements are especially intended for driving direct-acting pumps, the engine may be used for any other purpose.

In the drawings, Figure 1 is a plan view of my improvement, and Fig. 2 is a vertical longitudinal section through the cylinders.

The cylinder A is of smallest diameter. The cylinder B is the next larger in diameter, forming the second cylinder, and the cylinder 0 is thelargest and forms the third cylinder, and these cylinders are placed so that the cylinder A is at one end of the range of cylinders and the cylinder C at the other end, and the piston-rods may be made either in one piece or in lengths in line with each other and in line with the axis of the cylinders; but I prefer to have the piston-rods D D D D I) connected with pistons A, B, and C and to the respective cross-head H, there being glands or stuffing-boxes E E E around the respective piston-rods, and the rods D D are within tubes or cases at the sides of the respective cylinders A B, so that the glands at the ends of such tubes or cases are easy of access. The rods G connect the cylinder 13 to the pump G, and these rods may form slides for the cross-head H.

The valves made use of are of any desired character. I, however, prefer to use D slidevalves, the valve I being adapted to the steanrchest A of the cylinder A, the valve K to the chest B of the cylinder I3, and the valve L to the chest 0 of the cylinder 0, and the respective valve-rods 3 4 5 are connected together, preferably, by the brackets or wrists N, so that the respective valves may be as close to the exterior of the respective cylinders as convenient, and the steam and exhaust ports for such valves will hence be as short as possible, and I make use of an auxiliary valve 0 and valve-rod 7, acted upon by the tappets 8 and arm 9 from the cross-head II, and this auxiliary valve 0 admits steam to act upon the valve-moving pistons P; and I remark that valve-moving pistons and auxiliary valves acted upon by tappets, being well known for moving the main valve of a steamengine, do not require to be further described in this connection, and where two of these pumps and expansion-engines are placed side by side the valves of one engine may be moved by the other engine as it completes its stroke, as Well known in duplex pumpingengines.

The steam is admitted by the pipe Q, and the exhaust-pipe P from the cylinderA passes to the steam-chest B of the cylinder B, and the exhaust-pipe R from the cylinder 13 passes to the steam chest C of the cylinder 0, and as the valves I K L are all connected together and move at the same time the steam from the cylinder A is allowed to exhaust into the cylinder B and act upon the larger piston B simultaneously with the steam that passes from the cylinder B into the third and larger cylinder 0 and acts upon the piston C, so that all the pistons move simultaneously in first one direction and then the other,.and all the benefit from the steam is obtained by the expansion into the respective cylinders B and C. It will'now be understood that the back head of the cylinder 0 may be removed with facility to give access to the piston C for packing or repairing the same, and that the front head 11 of the cylinder A will be removed to give access to the piston A for packing orrepairing the same; butin order to obtain access to the piston B of the cylinder B, I make the cylinder A movable and support the same upon the side rods G, that extend from the cylinder B to the water-cylinder of the pump, so that by unbolting the head 12 between the cylinder A and the cylinder B the entire cylinder A and head may be slipped along upon the piston-rod and upon the side rods G, so as to give access to the piston B in the cylinder B.

The cylinder A may have a foot-piece A extending down from such cylinder to the bed-plate S, and said foot-piece rests upon slides or ways upon such bed-plate, so that the cylinder-A may be slid along upon the bed-plate, if desired. In this case it may not be necessary to support the cylinder A upon the rods G. The cylinders B and C may be cast together, the head 13 being formed With such cylinders B and C; but usually it is preferable to make this head separate from the cylinder 0 and bolt the parts together, as represented in Fig. 2.

By this construction and arrangement of cylinders the engine is made Very compactand symmetrical, the steam pipes and ports are shortened up as much as possible, and the connections are simple and very efficient, and

all the parts are easily accessible for repair or packing.

The tubes or cases at the sides of the respective cylinders AB for the rods DD may be cast With such cylinders or formed of pieces of pipe screwed into the heads, as shown, the glands orstuffing-boxes being atthe outer ends of the tubes.

I claim as my invention 1. The combination, in an expansion engine, 0f the cylinders A B O, in line with each other, the smaller cylinderAbeing at one end and the larger cylinder 0 at the other end of the range, the piston -rods passing through the cylinders and being provided with pistons in the respective cylinders, the rear end 10 of the cylinder 0 being removable, the front head 11 of the cylinder A being removable, and the rear head 12 of the cylinder A being removable from the cylinder B, and supports for the cylinder A, that allow the same to be moved away from the cylinder B to give access to the pistonB for packing and repairing the same, substantially as set forth.

2. The cylinders A B O, axially in line with each other, the piston-rods, and the respective pistons, in combination with the valve-chests, valves, valve-rods, and the connecting-wrists, and asecondary valve and tappets, and valvemoving pistons for giving direct motion simultaneously to all three valves in the expansion-engine, substantially as set forth.

Signed by me this th day of November, 1888.

FREDK. MERIAM WHEELER.

lVitnesses:

GEO. T. PINoKNEY, WILLIAM G. MOTT. 

